Naruto Uzumaki
Naruto Uzumaki is the title character and main protagonist of the series. He is a genin from Konohagakure. He is also a member of Team Kakashi and the third jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox Background Naruto was born as the son of the FourthHokage, Minato Namikaze, and the Nine-Tails' second jinchūriki,Kushina Uzumaki. Naruto's parents had named him after the main character of Jiraiya's first book, making the Sannin his godfather. Prior to Naruto's birth, his parents knew that the seal that kept the Nine-Tails within Kushina would be in danger of breaking during childbirth. To prevent that threat Kushina was taken a short distance outside of the village to give birth in secret, with Biwako Sarutobi and Taji as her midwives, a few ANBU as security, and with Minato keeping the seal in place. Immediately after Kushina gave birth, Madara Uchih appeared and took Naruto hostage, demanding Minato to step away from Kushina or he would kill the newborn child. Madara then used a clever diversion that forced Minato to transport the baby to a safer location, allowing him to escape with Kushina. By the time Minato could intervene, Madara had already succeeded in releasing the Nine-Tails. Fortunately, Kushina (who survived the extraction thanks to her strong vitality) was saved by Minato and brought to Naruto, leaving the weakened mother to care for the sleeping Naruto while Minato went to combat Madara. To save the village, Minato sacrificed his life to seal the Nine-Tails within Naruto, believing that his son would someday have need of the demon's power to defeat Madara's threat once and for all. Suddenly orphaned, Naruto was left to grow up knowing nothing of his parents, receiving only his mother's last name since the Third Hokage felt that it was best that nobody knew that he was related to the Fourth Hokage. Before Minato died, he asked that the villagers of Konoha view Naruto as a hero who had helped defeat the Nine-Tails. However, only a few of the villagers honoured his request, while most instead resented him for containing the monster that had destroyed their home. In light of this, the Third Hokage decreed that nobody should ever speak of the truth about Naruto, hoping that their children would not resent him as they did. The children, however, followed their parents' lead, despite not knowing why. Apart from the Third Hokage, Iruka Umino was the only one who acted as a surrogate family to the young Naruto . Personality Due to the prejudice and loneliness he suffered in his childhood, Naruto developed a craving for acknowledgment. In order to achieve this, Naruto would pull pranks all around the village and even going far as strive for the title of Hokage. Even after graduating from the academy, Naruto was still determined to be recognized, but as he made more and more connections with others, his reasons for wanting to become Hokage underwent a change, having less to do with the desire for recognition, and more to do with wanting the strength to protect his home and the people close to him. As noted by Madara Uchiha, Naruto is a fervent believer in the Will of Fire, likening him to his old rival in this respect. Naruto's unstoppable determination and drive strongly impacts the lives around him, even his enemies had been affected by his empathy. Both Kakashi and Temari had referred to Naruto's amazing charisma as a "unique power" that allows him to change the worldly views of others. Naruto is most prominently characterized by his hyperactivity, being exuberant, impatient, impulsive, and inattentive. According to Kakashi, Naruto learns through his body. He is relatively naive and simple, being slow to understand a principle or situation, and often requiring an oversimplified analogy in order to grasp what is being explained to him. Overall, Naruto responds best to competition and possesses a great degree of confidence in himself, loudly proclaiming that he will master whatever technique he is learning in a fraction of the usual time, though he will not hesitate to ask for help if he needs it Dark Naruto After Killer Bee refused to train Naruto, Motoi guided Naruto and Yamato to the Falls of Truth, the place where Bee trained to control the Eight-Tailed Giant Ox. He instructed Naruto to sit on a platform and close his eyes. Soon after,Dark Naruto (闇ナルト, Yami Naruto) appeared, berating Naruto for how quickly the people from Konoha changed their ideals of Naruto and had started sucking up to him, which sickened the former. Dark Naruto said that he was the manifestation of hatred that existed within Naruto's heart, and the Nine-Tails liked him better. Dark Naruto exclaimed that he was the real Naruto and that Naruto was an impostor. They started to fight, but after a while, Naruto realized that they both had the same techniques, skills, and tactics. As a result, their fight was a draw and Naruto mentioned that if they continued like this, it would take a long time to settle it, so he awoke and told Yamato and Motoi what happened. Motoi told him that he must defeat Dark Naruto in order to learn how to control the Nine-Tails. He appeared once again after Naruto returned to the Falls of Truth. Instead of fighting, Naruto projected an image from his mind of his autograph signature that he was unable to give to the Konoha shinobi. This angered Dark Naruto, pointing out to Naruto that those people were part of the same villagers who treated him as an outcast and how much he suffered because of them, telling him that he shouldn't trust them. However, Naruto stated that he trusts the villagers because they are important to him, but what was also important was that he needed to have faith in himself, so he would have the strength to live up to the villagers' trust in him. Naruto's statement started to weaken Dark Naruto, then forcing him to ask what the reason for his existence was. Naruto stated that Dark Naruto was really him and thanked Dark Naruto for pushing him to be the person he was now. He hugged Dark Naruto when the latter tried to attack him, telling Dark Naruto that it was all going to be alright. Letting go of his own anger at their past, Dark Naruto's eyes lightened and he gave into Naruto's words, disappearing into Naruto. Later, when Naruto entered his subconscious, the Nine-Tails expressed surprise as it could no longer sense any hatred within Naruto, and questioned Naruto about where the "real him" was, to which Naruto replied that the real him was right in front of it Abilities At the start of the series, one of the only techniques Naruto could do without fail was the Transformation Technique, and his own original variant of the technique called the Sexy Technique; a creative but almost completely useless diversionary jutsu, used simply to shock his instructors.Throughout Part I he learns a number of short-range techniques, which are expanded upon during his two-and-a-half years of training with Jiraiya. Naruto also improves his knowledge of other ninja skills while under Jiraiya's tutelage, using more taijutsu and ninja tools than he did in Part I. He also learned how to dispel genjutsu and despite his limited skill with it he was able to resist being put to sleep by Itachi Uchiha. During Part II he starts to master longer-range techniques, such as the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken and chakra arms. IIn Part I, Naruto is regularly noted to have a great deal of potential, primarily because of the Nine-Tails sealed within him. When Orochimaru sees him defeat Kabuto, he tries to kill Naruto for fear of what he will become. This potential manifests itself during Part II when he regularly proves himself a match for the S-rank members of Akatsuki. His victory over the Six Paths of Pain has earned him the most acclaim in the ninja world: Konoha villagers believe he is Hokage-material after they hear about it, and Zetsu, after seeing the battle, suggests Naruto has become stronger than Sasuke. Being a descendant of the Uzumaki clan, Naruto possesses incredible stamina and vitality, the former of which is further augmented by the Nine-Tails. He apparently has some knowledge on fūinjutsu, as he knew how to use the key to undo and redo his seal after receiving Gerotora. Jiraiya had left Naruto with the key to help him complete an unknown technique which he, Naruto, and Minato have been working on, but never finished. Naruto stated that he was ready to complete it. While searching for the Uchiha brothers, Itachi granted Naruto a portion of his power, in case Sasuke ever chose to revolt against Konoha. It is currently unknown what this power is yet. Jinchūriki Transformations As the Nine-Tails' jinchurikl, Naruto is gifted with its enormous supply of chakra and stamina, accelerated healing (recovering from minor injuries within a few seconds to major injuries within a day) and depending on the amount of the Nine-Tails' chakra he's using, Naruto is also given an increase in strength and speed, along with an increase in his healing factor to such levels that he recovered from a Chidoristrike in mere seconds and, at times, he is granted a nearly impenetrable chakra shield. Naruto's normal chakra level is considered extremely high, partially because of the Nine-Tails. The sealallowed a small amount of the Nine-Tails' chakra to always mix with Naruto's own. Jiraiya once commented upon the fact that Naruto's body was much too small a vessel to properly contain the Nine-Tails' chakra, and his body would instinctively reject the bulk of it due to the damage it could cause. Ebisiimplied that Naruto's poor chakra control stemmed from this, as a portion of his chakra was used to reject the Nine-Tails' overwhelming chakra. According to Kakashi, Naruto's regular chakra level is about four times of Kakashi's own. As such, he is naturally suited to jutsu that use a large amount of chakra, such as the Shadow Clone Technique. While most ninja are only capable of creating a few clones safely, due to the technique's hazard of equally dividing the user's chakra among the clones, Naruto is able to create hundreds while maintaining a decent supply of chakra in each one. The Nine-Tails' chakra first came to Naruto during life-threatening situations, given to him by the Nine-Tails itself to ensure its survival, but after training with Jiraiya, Naruto learned how to contact the Nine-Tails and demand some of its chakra. Alternatively, Naruto could give into his anger or frustration, allowing the Nine-Tails to force its influence upon him. Depending on how much of its chakra he gained, the Nine-Tails' influence within its chakra could make Naruto lose control of his senses, devolving into an animal that attacks anything within reach, as well as damaging his own body, slowly shortening his lifespan. Although a number of methods had been devised to break its influence over Naruto (Jiraiya's seal tag, and Yamato's Hokage-Style Sixty-Year-Old Technique - Kakuan Entering Society with Bliss-Bringing Hands, which was facilitated by Hashirama Senju's necklace Naruto wore before its destruction),Naruto simply limited his use of the Nine-Tails' chakra, and tried not to allow his anger get the best of him, but he eventually attempted to exercise more control over it.